With the recent CAT scan
of the two mummies
from the SA Museum, and the release of the film The Mummy,
mummies
are very much in the news at the moment.

The ancient Persian
physicians used a black,
bituminous substance called mumia, which oozed from a local
mountain.
The Greeks incorrectly believed it to he the same substance that the
Egyptians
used for embalming, and, despite the error, the name stuck and the
embalmed
Egyptian bodies became known as "mummies."

When supplies of the
natural substance ran
out people started stealing Egyptian mummies from their tombs, to
obtain
what they believed was mumia, and a huge smuggling trade
developed.

In time the origins of the
substance was
forgotten and people believed that it was the mummified body itself
that
had the curative powers, and later still the idea became generalized to
the point where it was believed that the flesh of any corpse could he
used
for medicinal purposes.

Unfortunately not all
dealers in mummies
were reputable. It was quite common for certain dealers to make their
own
mummies on the side. When contagious diseases swept through Egypt they
collected the corpses, mummified them cheaply, and then sold them off
at
huge profit as being genuine articles. What the end result would have
been
for people taking medicine made from such mummies is not known.

Do you know why wrapping
paper is usually
brown?

In the 19th century the
wrapping paper business
in America had grown into a huge business. Producers of this paper were
always on the lookout for supplies of cheap material to add to the
paper
mix. It was discovered that vast numbers of Egyptian mummies were
available
at very low cost. The paper manufacturers in America started importing
huge numbers of them. They were broken up and simply dropped into the
vats
where the paper-pulp was being prepared. Because of their colour these
mummies produced brown coloured paper.

The practice continued for
so long that brown
became the accepted colour for wrapping paper, and even when the supply
of mummies ran out, the paper continued to he produced in that colour.